This blog has been a way to interact with some of you around "subjects" that Aristotle has taught too many of us in the West, even today, to disparage: females, rhetoric, and translation. Much recovery yet to do.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Living Liturgy: Part I

This week, some of my favorite bloggers are using the word, liturgy, as they get on with their lives. In Part II of this short series, I'll link to them.

In Part I, below, I'm just quoting some of the first uses of an old related word. One new blogger has today called this word, "the Greek [word], leitourgia, 'public service,' which is how Greek civilization thought of service to the gods."

In the six quotations below, can you see how the word has had origins that are fairly restrictive?

At first, the word is purely Greek for Greek men alone. Aristotle is writing his Politics to show who the exemplary Greek men are (in geographic locations such as Crete); it's his effort to form a pan-Hellenic empire. Secondly, then, and considerably later, Aristotle's Greek word becomes Jewish (or also Hebrew Hellene). The Greek word becomes Jewish in appropriated translation. It's a word that Jewish translators in Alexandria, Egypt, use. (Alexandria is the namesake city of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great is Aristotle's disciple. Egypt was also the pre-Alexandrian empire, where a tribe of Jews became the 12 tribes and eventually became the imperial slaves of the Egyptian Pharaohs and even slaves of the general Egyptian population). So, back in Egypt, now under the Greek empire of Alexander, the Jews translating their holy history will and do appropriate the Greek word. Finally, we fast-forward to the days of the Roman empire and see the Greek word expanding in meanings from its earliest uses. We see this now in the Jewish new writings of the first century, but - in the first century here - only in the writings of Luke the writer of the gospel and of the Book of Acts and only in the Book of Hebrews (written anonymously) and only in the writings of Paul. Below are some writings of Paul, to "Jews" and to "Greeks" [but not to "Romans"], in Rome. Paul writes in Greek [not in the imperial language Latin]. Paul is a Jew [but he's also a Roman citizen] and also a proponent of Jesus-as-Messiah to the Jew first and then to the Greek, to the nations that eat unkosher foods and offerings made to idols and gods and goddesses. He opens up the uses of the Greek word explicitly to "the nations," also known as "gentiles" or "the goyim."

So, that's Part I, below. Hope we can read these passages with all the care and attention they've earned. Note, for example, what Aristotle tells men about women about abortion and infanticide. Note how the priest Aaron, and his son, must be exclusively family and exclusively male in the family. Note how Paul assumes certain classes of race and ignores some still. Here, hear:

but in Crete the system is more communal, for out of all the crops and cattle produced from the public lands, and the tributes paid by the serfs, one part is assigned for the worship of the gods and the maintenance of the public services [λειτουργίας leitourgías], and the other for the public mess-tables, so that all the citizens are maintained from the common funds, women and children as well as men; and the lawgiver has devised many wise measures to secure the benefit of moderation at table, and the segregation of the women in order that they may not bear many children, for which purpose he instituted association with the male sex, as to which there will be another occasion to consider whether it was a bad thing or a good one.

And pregnant women also must take care of their bodies, not avoiding exercise nor adopting a low diet; this it is easy for the lawgiver to secure by ordering them to make a journey daily for the due worship of the deities whose office is the control of childbirth. As regards the mind, however, on the contrary it suits them to pass the time more indolently than as regards their bodies; for children before birth are evidently affected by the mother just as growing plants are by the earth. As to exposing or rearing the children born, let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared; but on the ground of number of children, if the regular customs hinder any of those born being exposed, there must be a limit fixed to the procreation of offspring, and if any people have a child as a result of intercourse in contravention of these regulations, abortion must be practised on it before it has developed sensation and life; for the line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive. And since the beginning of the fit age for a man and for a woman, at which they are to begin their union, has been defined, let it also be decided for how long a time it is suitable for them to serve [λειτουργεῖν leitourgeīn] the state in the matter of producing children. For the offspring of too elderly parents, as those of too young ones, are born imperfect both in body and mind, and the children of those that have arrived at old age are weaklings.

And Aaron and his sons shall wear them, whenever they enter the tent of witness or whenever they come near to the altar of the holy place to minister [λειτουργεῖν leitourgeīn], and they shall not bring onto themselves sin, lest they die: a perpetual precept for him and his seed after him.

... I write boldly to remind you,
Because of grace that God has given me
To be a servant [λειτουργὸν leitourgon] of Mashiah Yeshua
To gentiles in the holy governance
Of all good news of God so that this offering
To gentiles be acceptable to him
And sanctified by the holy spirit.

Now I am going to Yerushalayim
And labor in the service of the saints.
Makedonia and Ahaia with kindness
Have offered their funds to help the poor saints
In Yerushalayim. They agreed to do this,
And feel themselves indebted to these saints,
For since the gentiles share in spiritual matters,
They also are obliged to share [λειτουργῆσαι leitourgēsai] with them
Materially. When I have done all this
And sent them the fruit of my work, I'll go
For Spain, stopping on route to visit you.
I know that when I come to be with you,
I'll come with the Mashiah's full blessing.